What We've Been Up To and I've Been Reading

Wow wow wow. It's Thursday. 2017 is slipping away from me here and I don't like it one bit! It really blows my mind that it is already a week into December!

St. Nicholas found us yesterday. Which is always fun. This year he brought Disney Christmas pajamas, and some books for the Christmas book basket.

We also made the Fluffy the Snowman pancakes for dinner last night.

It wasn't a complete Pinterest fail situation. Of course ours doesn't look as lovely as the IHop website picture but it was still pretty cute and tasty. A nice winter dinner anyhow! 

I have one of my book clubs tonight. About 6 months ago we turned a corner and our meetups to discuss the books have been very thematic. Tonight's book to discuss is Where'd You Go, Bernadette.

I wrote about it a few weeks ago. It's a little hard to describe without completely spoiling the whole book, but basically the book revolves around Bernadette an agoraphobic architect who goes missing before her family's trip to Antarctica. (Colleen if you see this, this is definitely a book for adults but would be rated PG! But I know fiction isn't your thing!)

Anyway as it turns out, Husband has a work event tonight and I was a moron and forgot about it when we scheduled book club. So I can't go. But... that's actually kind of thematic to the book since, Bernadette disappears and all. So I didn't tell my friends I wasn't going to be there and instead had Husband dropped off this package this morning. 

Manjula is Bernadette's assistant. Inside I wrote a letter explaining my whereabouts and some of my thoughts on the book. That is also thematic because the book is epistolary in style for the bulk of it. But then I also included a copy of next month's book for all of them as a Christmas gift. (I picked the book and it's a fairly new release so I am hedging my bets they don't all own it already.) What can I say? I like a good theme! 

This picture is actually a picture the host took and texted out to all of us letting us know it arrived. I didn't want to be the only one not to respond so I sent a thumbs up emoji. I can't wait to see what they think tonight. 

In more book news, I was on quite a few wait lists through my library and obviously Murphy's Law, I got all 4 books automatically checked out to me within days of each other! So this past week I have read: 

Radio Girls. Historical fiction about women who work at the BCC at the very beginning of the organization. Also a really good, for adults but pretty PG read. There's a little bit of suspense but not so much to kick it out of the historical fiction genre. This would be a wonderful book club pick! 

Before We Were Yours. Once again a PG read but it was intense for me at time. The story follows Avery who returns home to help her senator father in the midst of his declining health. She happens to meet a senior citizen named May. Avery decides to find out more information about May and discovers a hushed up history of stolen children and illegal adoptions. 

This book is historical fiction in that the characters we meet are primarily made up. But the children's home and staff members at the children's home were real and some of the situations you read about are taken from accounts of children who survived it. A lot of what they go through is truly horrific and you can't believe the injustice. I liken the reading experience to reading Orphan Train or The Nightingale. Well written and important. 

Little Fires Everywhere. This was probably my favorite book I've read in a while. It is my second book I've read by Celeste Ng and I personally really like her style. She has a slow and steady pace, and she jumps around in time a lot. This book is a drama, mystery, family psychology, storytelling from many points of view... and I enjoyed it. That said, I know that some people really don't like her style so take that as you will.

It is hard to describe the plot because it's kind of a little of everything but it primarily follows two families in a seemingly perfectly planned out suburban town. These families are completely different but become intertwined and a very public custody battle plays out and line are drawn.

I really liked the book but it is definitely a PG-13 read.  However reading this immediately after Before We Were Yours I declared to Husband that I did not want to read another book about adoption for a while.

I still have two books I am currently reading so when I am mysteriously absent from the blog I am probably just reading. :) Of course after these next two I am sure there are more on the horizon. It's my final push for 2017 books read.